Cca for configured grants

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed a method of operating a wireless device in a wireless communication network, the method including performing a clear channel assessment (CCA) procedure in an idle interval of a first fixed frame period preceding a second fixed frame period, wherein the start of a first configured transmission occasion coincides with the start of the channel occupancy interval of the second fixed frame period. The method further includes transmitting communication signaling based on the result of the CCA procedure. The disclosure also pertains to related devices and methods.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure pertains to wireless communication technology, inparticular in the context of operation in unlicensed spectrum.

BACKGROUND

In some radio frequency bands, a device may only transmit in aListen-Before-Talk (LBT) process according to regulations. This requiresthat the device monitors the frequency band it wants to transmit onwhether it is occupied or not, and only to transmit if it is found tonot be occupied. In the context of highly structured operations like ina 3GPP/Nr network, wherein transmissions are controlled by a centralnode like a base station, additional measures for ensuring smoothoperation following the regulations may be necessary.

SUMMARY

The approaches are particularly suitable for millimeter wavecommunication, in particular for radio carrier frequencies around and/orabove 52.6 GHz, which may be considered high radio frequencies (highfrequency) and/or millimeter waves. The carrier frequency/ies may bebetween 52.6 and 140 GHz, e.g. with a lower border between 52.6, 55, 60,71 GHz and/or a higher border between 71, 72, 90, 114, 140 GHz orhigher, in particular between 55 and 90 GHz, or between 60 and 72 GHz.The carrier frequency may in particular refer to a center frequency ormaximum frequency of the carrier. The radio nodes and/or networkdescribed herein may operate in wideband, e.g. with a carrier bandwidthof 1 GHz or more, or 2 GHz or more, or even larger. In some cases,operation may be based on an OFDM waveform or a SC-FDM waveform (e.g.,downlink and/or uplink). However, operation based on a single carrierwaveform, e.g. SC-FDE, may be considered for downlink and/or uplink. Ingeneral, different waveforms may be used for different communicationdirections. Communicating using or utilising a carrier and/or beam maycorrespond to operating using or utilising the carrier and/or beam,and/or may comprise transmitting on the carrier and/or beam and/orreceiving on the carrier and/or beam.

The approaches are particularly advantageously implemented in a 5thGeneration (5G) telecommunication network or 5G radio access technologyor network (RAT/RAN), in particular according to 3GPP (3^(rd) GenerationPartnership Project, a standardisation organization). A suitable RAN mayin particular be a RAN according to NR, for example release 15 or later,or LTE Evolution. However, the approaches may also be used with otherRAT, for example future 5.5G or 6G systems or IEEE based systems. It maybe considered that the RAN is operating in an unlicensed frequency band(or carrier or part thereof) and/or based on a LBT procedure to access(for transmission) the frequency band (or carrier or part thereof), forexample in a License Assisted Access (LAA) operation mode and/or in thecontext of NR-U (NR unlicensed).

There is disclosed a method of operating a wireless device in a wirelesscommunication network. The wireless device may be configured with afirst timing structure based on a fixed frame period (FFP). The fixedframe period may define frame intervals. Each frame interval and/or eachFPP may comprise a channel occupancy interval (also referred to asM-COT) and/or a subsequent idle interval. The idle interval may extendto the end of the frame interval and/or FPP. The wireless device furthermay be configured with a second timing structure based on slots, whichmay be referred to as slot structure, and/or may be a transmissiontiming structure defining a transmission timing grid, e.g. based slotsor subframes or minislots. The wireless device may be configured with aconfigured grant allowing transmission of communication signaling atconfigured transmission occasions within the second timing structure.Each configured transmission occasion may extend over a number Nto ofsymbols in a slot having a start at a first symbol of the Nto symbols.The method comprises performing a clear channel assessment (CCA)procedure (or LBT procedure) in an idle interval of a first fixed frameperiod preceding a second fixed frame period, wherein the start of afirst configured transmission occasion may coincide with the start ofthe channel occupancy interval (or M-COT) of the second fixed frameperiod. The method further may comprise transmitting communicationsignaling based on the result of the CCA procedure.

Further, a wireless device for a wireless communication network isdescribed. The wireless device may be adapted to be configured orconfigurable with a first timing structure based on a fixed frame period(FFP). The fixed frame period may define frame intervals. Each frameinterval and/or each FPP may comprise a channel occupancy interval (alsoreferred to as M-COT) and/or a subsequent idle interval. The idleinterval may extend to the end of the frame interval and/or FPP. Thewireless device further may be adapted to be configured or configurablewith a second timing structure based on slots, which may be referred toas slot structure, and/or may be a transmission timing structuredefining a transmission timing grid, e.g. based slots or subframes ormini-slots. The wireless device may be adapted to be configured orconfigurable with a configured grant allowing transmission ofcommunication signaling at configured transmission occasions within thesecond timing structure. Each configured transmission occasion mayextend over a number Nto of symbols in a slot having a start at a firstsymbol of the Nto symbols. The wireless device may be adapted to performa clear channel assessment (CCA) procedure (or LBT procedure) in an idleinterval of a first fixed frame period preceding a second fixed frameperiod, wherein the start of a first configured transmission occasionmay coincide with the start of the channel occupancy interval (or M-COT)of the second fixed frame period. The wireless device may further beadapted to transmit communication signaling based on the result of theCCA procedure. The wireless device may comprise processing circuitryand/or radio circuitry, in particular a transceiver and/or transmitterand/or receiver), for performing the CCA or LBT procedure and/ortransmitting the communication signaling and/or being configured.

Nto may be an integer number >=1. The wireless device may in particularbe a terminal or user equipment or IAB node (e.g., the terminal-likefunctionality, e.g. MT) Communication signaling may comprise datasignaling and/or control signaling, in particular on a physical channellike a physical shared channel, e.g. PUSCH or PSSCH, or a controlchannel. The configured grant may allocate resources for, and/or may beassociated to, a physical channel like PUSCH or PSSCH (or in some cases,a control channel like PUCCH or PSCCH). The FFP may pertain to afrequency range or channel or carrier or bandwidth part, in particularan access target frequency range. The configured grant may pertain to acarrier or frequency range or channel or carrier or BWP or frequencyallocation associated to, and/or included in the access target frequencyrange. In some alternatives, the first timing structure and/or thesecond timing structure may be predefined, e.g. based on a standard ordevice default (e.g., of the wireless device and/or a configuring node),and/or configured or configurable (e.g., overriding the default orpredefinition). A wireless device may be configured by receivingconfiguration signaling, e.g. higher layer signaling like RRC signalingand/or MAC signaling, for example from the network and/or one or morenetwork nodes, e.g. base station/s and/or gNB/s and/or IAB node/s and orTRPs (Transmission and Reception Point) and/or RRH/s (Remote RadioHead). The wireless device may be adapted to be configured accordingly.The access target frequency range may be in an unlicensed band and/ormay be accessible and/or require a positive CCA and/or LBT procedure. Asecond timing structure may define and/or provide scheduling occasionsfor transmission and/or reception, e.g. based on symbols. The wirelessdevice may be adapted to initiate M-COT and/or channel access based onthe first timing structure, e.g. such that it may initiate transmissionto start at the beginning of its M-COT or occupancy time interval(and/or within a predefined time interval after the beginning of thisinterval, e.g. to allow for a guard interval and/or circuitry switchingor tuning, e.g. after successful CCA or LBT).

The approaches described herein facilitate initiation of a transmissionoccupancy time (M-COT) in a FFP by a wireless device, without requiringadditional control signaling triggering the CCA procedure. Thus, lowlatency applications may be improved even in LBT/CCA based scenarios,e.g. in unlicensed bands.

In some variants, the first configured transmission occasion may have astart at a start of a first slot. The first slot may be any of the slotsin the second timing structure. Thus, start of configured grant, FFP andslot may coincide. Due to the idle time preceding, the wireless devicemay not be able to use the M-COT “piggybacking” onto or followinganother transmission by another device like a base station. Thus,autonomous initiation of transmission or channel occupation (accessingthe access target frequency range) may be performed.

In general, transmitting communication signaling based on the result ofthe CCA procedure or LBT procedure may comprise transmitting thecommunication signaling when the CCA procedure or LBT procedureindicates that the channel is unoccupied. The signaling may betransmitted starting with the first symbol of the configured grant,allowing quick transmission with low latency.

It may be considered that transmitting communication signaling based onthe result of the CCA procedure may comprise transmitting thecommunication signaling at a later configured transmission occasion thanthe first configured transmission occasion. This transmission may fallinto a M-COT initiated by another device and/or require no LBT/CCA or ashort LBT/CCA procedure, e.g. if the start of the later configuredtransmission occasion does not coincide with the start of a FFP of thewireless device; in some cases, it may be transmitted after performing aCCA or LBT procedure before the start of a FFP (in the idle period ofthe preceding FFP). Thus, if the CCA/LBT procedure is unsuccessful, thedata may still be transmitted.

In particular it may be considered that transmitting communicationsignaling and/or configuring the first timing structure is based onand/or in the context of a Frame Based Equipment (FBE) operation mode.This mode may be predefined and/or configured or configurable, e.g. witha mode switch (parameter) in a RRC or MAC or broadcast message (whichmay for example switch to, from or between FBE and/or a Load Basedequipment mode, LBE). Thus, simple high level signaling may be used fordefining the time behaviour for LBT procedures.

In general, the second timing structure may define a slot durationand/or number of symbols and/or symbol duration, in particular based ona numerology indication. This may provide a scheduling structureallowing good and efficient control over transmissions and devicebehaviour within the network with limited signaling overhead, inparticular if a large number of wireless devices are communicating.

It may be considered that the clear channel assessment or LBT procedurehas a duration shorter than a duration of the idle interval. Thus, theidle interval may be used for sensing the channel (another expressionfor monitoring or measuring on the frequency range) without interferingwith potential transmission in the preceding M-COT.

In general, the idle interval of the first fixed frame period may abutand/or neighbour the channel occupancy interval (or M-COT) of the secondfixed frame period (the term period may be considered interchangeablewith the term interval in the context of this description). Thus, thestructure may be closed, without gaps.

In some variants, Nto may be one of 1, 2, 3 or 4, or more. This mayallow short transmissions in particular for low latency applications.

Communicating may comprise transmitting or receiving. Communicating maybe based on beams and/or beamforming and/or beam pair/s. It may beconsidered that communicating like transmitting signaling is based on aSC-FDM based waveform, and/or corresponds to a Frequency Domain Filtered(FDF) DFTS-OFDM waveform. However, the approaches may be applied to aSingle Carrier based waveform, e.g. a SC-FDM or SC-FDE-waveform. Itshould be noted that SC-FDM may be considered DFT-spread OFDM, such thatSC-FDM and DFTS-OFDM may be used interchangeably. Alternatively, oradditionally, the signaling (e.g., first signaling and/or secondsignaling) and/or beam/s (in particular, the first received beam and/orsecond received beam) may be based on a waveform with CP or comparableguard time. The received beam and the transmission beam of the firstbeam pair may have the same (or similar) or different angular and/orspatial extensions; the received beam and the transmission beam of thesecond beam pair may have the same (or similar) or different angularand/or spatial extensions. It may be considered that the received beamand/or transmission beam of the first and/or second beam pair haveangular extension of 20 degrees or less, or 15 degrees or less, or 10 or5 degrees or less, at least in one of horizontal or vertical direction,or both; different beams may have different angular extensions.

In some variants, communicating may be based on a numerology (which may,e.g., be represented by and/or correspond to and/or indicate asubcarrier spacing and/or symbol time length) and/or an SC-FDM basedwaveform (including a FDF-DFTS-FDM based waveform) or a single-carrierbased waveform; however. Such waveforms may utilise a cyclic prefixand/or benefit particularly from the described approaches. Communicatingmay comprise and/or be based on beamforming, e.g. transmissionbeamforming and/or reception beamforming, respectively. It may beconsidered that a beam is produced by performing analog beamforming toprovide the beam, e.g. a beam corresponding to a reference beam. Thus,signaling may be adapted, e.g. based on movement of the communicationpartner. A beam may for example be produced by performing analogbeamforming to provide a beam corresponding to a reference beam. Thisallows efficient postprocessing of a digitally formed beam, withoutrequiring changes to a digital beamforming chain and/or withoutrequiring changes to a standard defining beam forming precoders. Ingeneral, a beam may be produced by hybrid beamforming, and/or by digitalbeamforming, e.g. based on a precoder. This facilitates easy processingof beams, and/or limits the number of power amplifiers/ADC/DCA requiredfor antenna arrangements. It may be considered that a beam is producedby hybrid beamforming, e.g. by analog beamforming performed on a beamrepresentation or beam formed based on digital beamforming. Monitoringand/or performing cell search may be based on reception beamforming,e.g. analog or digital or hybrid reception beamforming. The numerologymay determine the length of a symbol time interval and/or the durationof a cyclic prefix.

Communication signaling may comprise data signaling and/or controlsignaling. In particular, it may comprise data signaling on a datachannel, e.g. a physical channel like a physical uplink channel (e.g.,PUSCH or a dedicated channel), or a physical sidelink channel (e.g.,PSSCH or a dedicated channel).

There is also described a program product comprising instructionscausing processing circuitry to control and/or perform a method asdescribed herein. Moreover, a carrier medium arrangement carrying and/orstoring a program product as described herein is considered. Aninformation system comprising, and/or connected or connectable, to aradio node and/or wireless device is also disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings are provided to illustrate concepts and approachesdescribed herein, and are not intended to limit their scope. Thedrawings comprise:

FIG. 1, showing an exemplary LBT scenario;

FIG. 2, showing first and second timing structures for a wirelessdevice; and

FIG. 3, showing an exemplary wireless device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary LBT scenario, with a timeline of two radionodes Node 1 and Node 2 trying to access a frequency range fortransmission at different times. The access target may be an unlicensedband, for which LBT may be necessary. For each try, a Listen-Before-Talkprocedure comprising a clear channel assessment (CCA) procedure isperformed. In FIG. 1, there is shown exemplarily how Node 1 successfullyaccesses the access target frequency range twice, each time afterperforming a successful CCA (as part of a LBT procedure). Withsuccessful access, the device may transmit for up to a maximum ChannelOccupation Time (M-COT), but does not have to occupy (by transmitting)over the whole M-COT, as shown in FIG. 1. A second Node 2 in the exampleof FIG. 2 may try to access any time; at the end of the second channeloccupancy of Node 1 a CCA procedure may be successful, and allow Node 2to access the channel for a M-COT. The M-COT may be different fordifferent devices, as shown for Nodes 1 and 2 in FIG. 1. For example, aCOT or M-COT may generally be configured or configurable for a celland/or frequency range and/or carrier and/or for each deviceindividually, and/or may be predefined, e.g. based on a standard ordefault for a device or cell. As a long M-COT may come with a longbackoff requirement after unsuccessful CCA/LBT, it may not always bepreferable to have long M-COTs configured for a device. In many systems,a device may try to access the access target frequency range at anytime, e.g. based on its load (e.g., whether or not it has data totransmit, and/or how much data it has to transmit). However, in somevariants tries to access may be limited to specific points in time, e.g.based on a first timing structure, which may define a Fixed Frame Period(FPP).

FIG. 2 exemplarily shows a scenario with a Fixed Frame Period (FPP),which may be associated to a frequency range or carrier or spectrum orchannel, e.g. an access target frequency range and/or carrier and/orbandwidth part of a carrier. The first timing structure may define theFixed Frame Period for an individual device like w wireless device,wherein the FFPs are consecutive in time and abut in time domain. TheFPP may comprise a time interval comprising a leading (in time) intervalrepresenting a M-COT. The time units in each interval within the FFP maybe continuous or smooth, e.g., without being encompassed in subunitslike symbols. It also may comprise a trailing interval indicated as IDLEperiod, which may abut and/or be neighboring in time to the M-COT and/orthe next FFP. In particular, the M-COT interval may start at the startof the FPP, the IDLE period or interval may start at the end of theM-COT, and/or may extend until the end of the FPP. The idle period mayhave a minimum duration, e.g. in relation to the M-COT duration (e.g.,5% thereof, and/or in microseconds or milliseconds). The duration of aFFP and/or the M-COT and/or the idle time may be configured orconfigurable, and/or predefined. During the M-COT, the device maytransmit, for a duration starting at the start of the M-COT andextending until the end of the M-COT, but it may stop earlier.Initiating the M-COT may require performing a successful LBT procedureand/or CCA procedure in an LBT interval ending (which in the case ofFIG. 2 may have a duration of 9 microseconds, other durations may befeasible) at the start of the FFP (in particular, performed at the endof the preceding FFP, in the IDLE period of the preceding FFP). It maybe considered that based on the first timing structure, a M-COT (orchannel access initiation) may only be performed at the beginning of aFFP (and/or the start of the M-COT of the FFP). For a device like awireless device, a second timing structure may be defined, for exampleconfigured or configurable and/or predefined. The second timingstructure may be slot based, wherein each slot may comprise a number ofsymbols, e.g. based on numerology and/or SCS and/or symbol duration.Transmission and/or reception may be scheduled for symbols or groups ofsymbols within the slot. The second timing structure may be quantifiedin terms of symbols within a slot (for example, 14 symbols per slot).The first timing structure and/or the second timing structure may beconfigured to the wireless device, e.g. based on higher layer signalinglike RRC signaling (and/or signaling on a broadcast channel and/or assystem information) or MAC signaling. The first timing structure and thesecond timing structure may be configured with the same message and/orlayer or type of signaling, or in separate messages and/or withdifferent layers or types of signaling. For example, the second timingstructure may be configured with broadcast signaling, for example on aPBCH or SS/PBCH block (e.g., as system information), in particular toconfigure the numerology for the second timing structure, and the firsttiming structure may be configured with RRC signaling on a sharedchannel, or vice versa (in some variant, both may be configured withbroadcast and/or other signaling, e.g. RRC signaling on a sharedchannel). In the example, wireless device may be configured with aconfigured grant (indicated CG) allowing transmission (e.g., uplink orsidelink transmission, in particular on a PUSCH or PSSCH). A configuredgrant may provide resources (time/frequency resources, in particular)for transmission to the wireless device in multiple slots, for exampleperiodically each slot or each NT (NT being an integer >=1) slots orsubslots or symbols (e.g., periodically within a slot, e.g. every NT=2,4 or 7 symbols, or with other values for NT). The resources in each slotmay in general extend contiguous in time over one or more symbols, butmay be limited in total until the end of the slot is reached and/or to amaximum number, which may be equal or lower than the number of symbolsin the slot. Frequency resources may generally be associated to (e.g. beincluded in, totally or partially) the access target frequency range ofthe first timing structure. The resources may be considered transmissionoccasion or opportunities, at which the wireless device may transmit ifit has data or information to transmit without needing an additionalscheduling grant (e.g., a dynamically scheduled grant, in particularusing a DCI message or scheduling grant). However, in some cases theconfiguration may be activatable or de-activatable, e.g. with controlsignaling like physical layer signaling (e.g., DCI signaling orsignaling on a PDCCH); a configured grant may be valid after activationuntil it is deactivated with control signaling and/or until a timer hasrun out, for example started after a last transmission on resources ofthe configured grant. The slots of the second timing structure may havedifferent duration than the FFP and/or the idle period and/or the C-MOT.A wireless device configured with the first and second timing structuresand the configured grant as shown in FIG. 2, may transmit using theresources of the configured grant only at transmission occasion definedby the grant (indicated CG1 to CG6) that fall into an initiated M-COT.It may be considered that for transmission occasions falling into themiddle of its own FFP, like CG3, the wireless device may not initiatetransmission itself, but only take over transmission in a M-COTinitiated by another device, in particular a base station or gNB orother network node. This may or may not require a CCA procedure,depending on a possible gap between the end of the transmission received(e.g., DL transmission) and the start of the CG occasion (in timedomain). However, the wireless device will be informed about the channelbeing occupied and the scheduled or configured transmission's end withinthe C-MOT initiated by the other device. The wireless device may also bescheduled with dynamic scheduling to transmit within a C-MOT of anotherdevice (it should be noted that first timing structures with equal ordifferent FFPs of different device may overlap/run in parallel). It maygenerally be considered that in a situation in which a wireless devicehas available data to transmit at a CG occasion that starts at the startof a FFP (and/or M-COT) and/or at the start of a slot (e.g., firstsymbol of the slot), it may performs a CCA (and/or LBT) procedure in theidle period preceding the FFP (or M-COT), e.g. such that the LBT/CCAprocedure is at the end of the idle period and/or a positive result ofthe procedure allows transmission beginning at the first symbol of theslot/CG. The CCA/LBT procedure may be performed autonomously, e.g.without prompting and/or control signaling and/or receiving signaling inthe idle period of the preceding FFP, in particular without such from abase station or network node. This allows the wireless device toinitiate channel access or channel occupation at the beginning of theFFP and/or the CG without being scheduled with a trigger for performingCCA/LBT and/or utilising a M-COT initiated by another device. It shouldbe considered that in dynamic scheduling a wireless device can beinformed when to transmit and to perform CCA/LBT with the schedulinggrant; for a configured grant this opportunity is not available, thusthat an autonomous approach is proposed, saving signaling overhead torequest the information from the network, which can be an importantimprovement in particular in the context of low latency use cases, e.g.URLLC and/or high priority signaling. It should be noted that dependingon configuration, a FFP may extend over more than one slot (e.g.,covering for example an integer I number of slots I>=1, or a real orrational number), or may extend over a short duration than one slot. Thefirst timing structure and second timing structure may be configured orconfigurable such that at least occasionally and/or periodically, thestart of a FFP and the start of a slot coincide.

Typical durations for a slot (with 12 or 14 symbols, e.g.) may be 1 ms,0.5 ms, 0.25 ms or 0.125 ms or less (e.g., according to a power of 2).Typical durations for a FFP may be 20 ms, 10 ms, or 5 ms. In many cases,an FFP may be longer than a slot in duration. In general, the wirelessdevice may be configured or configurable by one or more network nodes,e.g. base stations and/or gNB and/or IAB nodes; different configurationmay be provided by the same node or different nodes, e.g. with differentmessages and/or different layers and/or types of signaling.

In general, a clear channel assessment (CCA) procedure may comprisemonitoring and/or performing measurements on a frequency range and/orchannel and/or carrier and/or spectrum. In particular, the CCA proceduremay comprise determining whether a channel or frequency range orspectrum or carrier is occupied, for example based on one or moreparameters, e.g. measured or monitored energy and/or power and/or signalstrength and/or energy density and/or power density or similar. A CCAprocedure may be performed and/or pertain to a specific time interval(also referred to as CCA duration), for example a measuring ormonitoring interval over which measurement and/or monitoring isperformed. The CCA procedure may be performed and/or pertain to aspecific frequency range (also referred to as CCA frequency range), forexample a measurement and/or monitoring range. The CCA frequency rangemay be part of and/or comprise the frequency range and/or carrier and/orspectrum and/or channel to be accessed (which may be referred to asaccess target frequency range, or access target in short; accessing inthis context may be considered to refer to transmitting signaling on therange and/or carrier and/or spectrum). The CCA frequency range may beconsidered representative of the access target frequency range in termsof occupation status (occupied or non-occupied). A CCA procedure mayindicate whether the access target is occupied or not, for example bycomparing measurement results with one or more threshold values. Forexample, if the measured power or energy over the CCA duration is lowerthan an occupancy threshold, the access target may be consideredunoccupied; if it reaches or is higher than the threshold, it may beconsidered occupied. A determination as unoccupied may be considered apositive result; a determination of occupied may be considered anegative result. A Listen-Before-Talk procedure (LBT) may comprise oneor more CCA procedure in an LBT time interval, for example with the sameduration and/or same condition or threshold for positive result, or withdifferent durations and/or different conditions or thresholds. An LBTprocedure may be considered positive if a threshold number of CCAs ofthe LBT procedure are positive, for example each or half, and/or aminimum consecutive in time are positive. A positive LBT and/or CCAprocedure may allow access to the access target for transmission, forexample to be accessed within an access time interval. Access(permission to transmit) may be valid for a channel occupation time(COT); the maximum time of access may be a maximum COT (M-COT). The timeof access may be referred to as transmission duration (which may be aslong as the M-COT or shorter). A radio node like a wireless device doesnot have to transmit the whole M-COT after successful CCA/LBT. It may beconsidered that part of the M-COT is passed on to another device, whichthen may transmit (using the rest of the M-COT), e.g. upon and/or basedon suitable control signaling; this may be particularly useful in acentralised system. For example, in centralised system, a base stationmay initiate an access, transmit DL signaling to a wireless devicescheduled for UL transmission such that the wireless device transmitswithin the M-COT after the DL transmission has ended, e.g. due tosuitable scheduling information. The device performing successful accessto start transmission at the beginning of a M-COT or COT may beconsidered the device initiating a COT or M-COT. Depending on whetherthere is a gap between transmissions of different device, one or moreCCA procedures (in particular, shorter in total than for initiation) mayhave to be performed by the device taking over transmission. If a LBTprocedure was unsuccessful, a device may be required to backoff (e.g.,not trying to access for a backoff time interval, which may bepredefined or random). Accessing and/or transmitting on an access targetfrequency range may comprise on the whole bandwidth of the frequencyrange, or on part of it, for example interleaved and/or in a contiguouspart and/or utilising frequency hopping, and/or may be based onallocated and/or scheduled and/or configured resources, for example intime domain (e.g., for a number of symbols or a time interval) and/orfrequency domain (e.g., as in terms of frequency subranges and/orsubcarriers and/or PRBs and/or groups of PRBs assigned for transmission,e.g. allocated or scheduled or configured).

FIG. 3 schematically shows a radio node, in particular a wireless deviceor terminal 10 or a UE (User Equipment). Radio node 10 comprisesprocessing circuitry (which may also be referred to as controlcircuitry) 20, which may comprise a controller connected to a memory.Any module of the radio node 10, e.g. a communicating module ordetermining module, may be implemented in and/or executable by, theprocessing circuitry 20, in particular as module in the controller.Radio node 10 also comprises radio circuitry 22 providing receiving andtransmitting or transceiving functionality (e.g., one or moretransmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers), the radio circuitry22 being connected or connectable to the processing circuitry. Anantenna circuitry 24 of the radio node 10 is connected or connectable tothe radio circuitry 22 to collect or send and/or amplify signals. Radiocircuitry 22 and the processing circuitry 20 controlling it areconfigured for cellular communication with a network, e.g. a RAN asdescribed herein, and/or for sidelink communication. Radio node 10 maygenerally be adapted to carry out any of the methods of operating aradio node or wireless device like terminal or UE disclosed herein; inparticular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processingcircuitry and/or radio circuitry and/or antenna circuitry, and/ormodules, e.g. software modules. It may be considered that the radio node10 comprises, and/or is connected or connectable, to a power supply.

Data signaling may be on a data channel, for example on a PDSCH orPSSCH, or on a dedicated data channel, e.g. for low latency and/or highreliability, e.g. a URLLC channel. Control signaling may be on a controlchannel, for example on a common control channel or a PDCCH or PSCCH,and/or comprise one or more DCI messages or SCI messages. Referencesignaling may be associated to control signaling and/or data signaling,e.g. DM-RS and/or PT-RS.

Reference signaling, for example, may comprise DM-RS and/or pilotsignaling and/or discovery signaling and/or synchronisation signalingand/or sounding signaling and/or phase tracking signaling and/orcell-specific reference signaling and/or user-specific signaling, inparticular CSI-RS. Reference signaling in general may be signaling withone or more signaling characteristics, in particular transmission powerand/or sequence of modulation symbols and/or resource distributionand/or phase distribution known to the receiver. Thus, the receiver canuse the reference signaling as a reference and/or for training and/orfor compensation. The receiver can be informed about the referencesignaling by the transmitter, e.g. being configured and/or signalingwith control signaling, in particular physical layer signaling and/orhigher layer signaling (e.g., DCI and/or RRC signaling), and/or maydetermine the corresponding information itself, e.g. a network nodeconfiguring a UE to transmit reference signaling. Reference signalingmay be signaling comprising one or more reference symbols and/orstructures. Reference signaling may be adapted for gauging and/orestimating and/or representing transmission conditions, e.g. channelconditions and/or transmission path conditions and/or channel (or signalor transmission) quality. It may be considered that the transmissioncharacteristics (e.g., signal strength and/or form and/or modulationand/or timing) of reference signaling are available for both transmitterand receiver of the signaling (e.g., due to being predefined and/orconfigured or configurable and/or being communicated). Different typesof reference signaling may be considered, e.g. pertaining to uplink,downlink or sidelink, cell-specific (in particular, cell-wide, e.g.,CRS) or device or user specific (addressed to a specific target or userequipment, e.g., CSI-RS), demodulation-related (e.g., DMRS) and/orsignal strength related, e.g. power-related or energy-related oramplitude-related (e.g., SRS or pilot signaling) and/or phase-related,etc.

References to specific resource structures like transmission timingstructure and/or symbol and/or slot and/or mini-slot and/or subcarrierand/or carrier may pertain to a specific numerology, which may bepredefined and/or configured or configurable. A transmission timingstructure may represent a time interval, which may cover one or moresymbols. Some examples of a transmission timing structure aretransmission time interval (TTI), subframe, slot and mini-slot. A slotmay comprise a predetermined, e.g. predefined and/or configured orconfigurable, number of symbols, e.g. 6 or 7, or 12 or 14. A mini-slotmay comprise a number of symbols (which may in particular beconfigurable or configured) smaller than the number of symbols of aslot, in particular 1, 2, 3 or 4, or more symbols, e.g. less symbolsthan symbols in a slot. A transmission timing structure may cover a timeinterval of a specific length, which may be dependent on symbol timelength and/or cyclic prefix used. A transmission timing structure maypertain to, and/or cover, a specific time interval in a time stream,e.g. synchronized for communication. Timing structures used and/orscheduled for transmission, e.g. slot and/or mini-slots, may bescheduled in relation to, and/or synchronized to, a timing structureprovided and/or defined by other transmission timing structures. Suchtransmission timing structures may define a timing grid, e.g., withsymbol time intervals within individual structures representing thesmallest timing units. Such a timing grid may for example be defined byslots or subframes (wherein in some cases, subframes may be consideredspecific variants of slots). A transmission timing structure may have aduration (length in time) determined based on the durations of itssymbols, possibly in addition to cyclic prefix/es used. The symbols of atransmission timing structure may have the same duration, or may in somevariants have different duration. The number of symbols in atransmission timing structure may be predefined and/or configured orconfigurable, and/or be dependent on numerology. The timing of amini-slot may generally be configured or configurable, in particular bythe network and/or a network node. The timing may be configurable tostart and/or end at any symbol of the transmission timing structure, inparticular one or more slots.

There is generally considered a program product comprising instructionsadapted for causing processing and/or control circuitry to carry outand/or control any method described herein, in particular when executedon the processing and/or control circuitry. Also, there is considered acarrier medium arrangement carrying and/or storing a program product asdescribed herein.

A carrier medium arrangement may comprise one or more carrier media.Generally, a carrier medium may be accessible and/or readable and/orreceivable by processing or control circuitry. Storing data and/or aprogram product and/or code may be seen as part of carrying data and/ora program product and/or code. A carrier medium generally may comprise aguiding/transporting medium and/or a storage medium. Aguiding/transporting medium may be adapted to carry and/or carry and/orstore signals, in particular electromagnetic signals and/or electricalsignals and/or magnetic signals and/or optical signals. A carriermedium, in particular a guiding/transporting medium, may be adapted toguide such signals to carry them. A carrier medium, in particular aguiding/transporting medium, may comprise the electromagnetic field,e.g. radio waves or microwaves, and/or optically transmissive material,e.g. glass fiber, and/or cable. A storage medium may comprise at leastone of a memory, which may be volatile or non-volatile, a buffer, acache, an optical disc, magnetic memory, flash memory, etc.

A system comprising one or more radio nodes or wireless devices asdescribed herein, in particular a network node and a user equipment, isdescribed. The system may be a wireless communication system, and/orprovide and/or represent a radio access network.

Moreover, there may be generally considered a method of operating aninformation system, the method comprising providing information.Alternatively, or additionally, an information system adapted forproviding information may be considered. Providing information maycomprise providing information for, and/or to, a target system, whichmay comprise and/or be implemented as radio access network and/or aradio node, in particular a network node or user equipment or terminal.Providing information may comprise transferring and/or streaming and/orsending and/or passing on the information, and/or offering theinformation for such and/or for download, and/or triggering suchproviding, e.g. by triggering a different system or node to streamand/or transfer and/or send and/or pass on the information. Theinformation system may comprise, and/or be connected or connectable to,a target, for example via one or more intermediate systems, e.g. a corenetwork and/or internet and/or private or local network. Information maybe provided utilising and/or via such intermediate system/s. Providinginformation may be for radio transmission and/or for transmission via anair interface and/or utilising a RAN or radio node as described herein.Connecting the information system to a target, and/or providinginformation, may be based on a target indication, and/or adaptive to atarget indication. A target indication may indicate the target, and/orone or more parameters of transmission pertaining to the target and/orthe paths or connections over which the information is provided to thetarget. Such parameter/s may in particular pertain to the air interfaceand/or radio access network and/or radio node and/or network node.Example parameters may indicate for example type and/or nature of thetarget, and/or transmission capacity (e.g., data rate) and/or latencyand/or reliability and/or cost, respectively one or more estimatesthereof. The target indication may be provided by the target, ordetermined by the information system, e.g. based on information receivedfrom the target and/or historical information, and/or be provided by auser, for example a user operating the target or a device incommunication with the target, e.g. via the RAN and/or air interface.For example, a user may indicate on a user equipment communicating withthe information system that information is to be provided via a RAN,e.g. by selecting from a selection provided by the information system,for example on a user application or user interface, which may be a webinterface. An information system may comprise one or more informationnodes. An information node may generally comprise processing circuitryand/or communication circuitry. In particular, an information systemand/or an information node may be implemented as a computer and/or acomputer arrangement, e.g. a host computer or host computer arrangementand/or server or server arrangement. In some variants, an interactionserver (e.g., web server) of the information system may provide a userinterface, and based on user input may trigger transmitting and/orstreaming information provision to the user (and/or the target) fromanother server, which may be connected or connectable to the interactionserver and/or be part of the information system or be connected orconnectable thereto. The information may be any kind of data, inparticular data intended for a user of for use at a terminal, e.g. videodata and/or audio data and/or location data and/or interactive dataand/or game-related data and/or environmental data and/or technical dataand/or traffic data and/or vehicular data and/or circumstantial dataand/or operational data. The information provided by the informationsystem may be mapped to, and/or mappable to, and/or be intended formapping to, communication or data signaling and/or one or more datachannels as described herein (which may be signaling or channel/s of anair interface and/or used within a RAN and/or for radio transmission).It may be considered that the information is formatted based on thetarget indication and/or target, e.g. regarding data amount and/or datarate and/or data structure and/or timing, which in particular may bepertaining to a mapping to communication or data signaling and/or a datachannel. Mapping information to data signaling and/or data channel/s maybe considered to refer to using the signaling/channel/s to carry thedata, e.g. on higher layers of communication, with thesignaling/channel/s underlying the transmission. A target indicationgenerally may comprise different components, which may have differentsources, and/or which may indicate different characteristics of thetarget and/or communication path/s thereto. A format of information maybe specifically selected, e.g. from a set of different formats, forinformation to be transmitted on an air interface and/or by a RAN asdescribed herein. This may be particularly pertinent since an airinterface may be limited in terms of capacity and/or of predictability,and/or potentially be cost sensitive. The format may be selected to beadapted to the transmission indication, which may in particular indicatethat a RAN or radio node as described herein is in the path (which maybe the indicated and/or planned and/or expected path) of informationbetween the target and the information system. A (communication) path ofinformation may represent the interface/s (e.g., air and/or cableinterfaces) and/or the intermediate system/s (if any), between theinformation system and/or the node providing or transferring theinformation, and the target, over which the information is, or is to be,passed on. A path may be (at least partly) undetermined when a targetindication is provided, and/or the information is provided/transferredby the information system, e.g. if an internet is involved, which maycomprise multiple, dynamically chosen paths. Information and/or a formatused for information may be packet-based, and/or be mapped, and/or bemappable and/or be intended for mapping, to packets. Alternatively, oradditionally, there may be considered a method for operating a targetdevice comprising providing a target indicating to an informationsystem. More alternatively, or additionally, a target device may beconsidered, the target device being adapted for providing a targetindication to an information system. In another approach, there may beconsidered a target indication tool adapted for, and/or comprising anindication module for, providing a target indication to an informationsystem. The target device may generally be a target as described above.A target indication tool may comprise, and/or be implemented as,software and/or application or app, and/or web interface or userinterface, and/or may comprise one or more modules for implementingactions performed and/or controlled by the tool. The tool and/or targetdevice may be adapted for, and/or the method may comprise, receiving auser input, based on which a target indicating may be determined and/orprovided. Alternatively, or additionally, the tool and/or target devicemay be adapted for, and/or the method may comprise, receivinginformation and/or communication signaling carrying information, and/oroperating on, and/or presenting (e.g., on a screen and/or as audio or asother form of indication), information. The information may be based onreceived information and/or communication signaling carryinginformation. Presenting information may comprise processing receivedinformation, e.g. decoding and/or transforming, in particular betweendifferent formats, and/or for hardware used for presenting. Operating oninformation may be independent of or without presenting, and/or proceedor succeed presenting, and/or may be without user interaction or evenuser reception, for example for automatic processes, or target deviceswithout (e.g., regular) user interaction like MTC devices, of forautomotive or transport or industrial use. The information orcommunication signaling may be expected and/or received based on thetarget indication. Presenting and/or operating on information maygenerally comprise one or more processing steps, in particular decodingand/or executing and/or interpreting and/or transforming information.Operating on information may generally comprise relaying and/ortransmitting the information, e.g. on an air interface, which mayinclude mapping the information onto signaling (such mapping maygenerally pertain to one or more layers, e.g. one or more layers of anair interface, e.g. RLC (Radio Link Control) layer and/or MAC layerand/or physical layer/s). The information may be imprinted (or mapped)on communication signaling based on the target indication, which maymake it particularly suitable for use in a RAN (e.g., for a targetdevice like a network node or in particular a UE or terminal). The toolmay generally be adapted for use on a target device, like a UE orterminal. Generally, the tool may provide multiple functionalities, e.g.for providing and/or selecting the target indication, and/or presenting,e.g. video and/or audio, and/or operating on and/or storing receivedinformation. Providing a target indication may comprise transmitting ortransferring the indication as signaling, and/or carried on signaling,in a RAN, for example if the target device is a UE, or the tool for aUE. It should be noted that such provided information may be transferredto the information system via one or more additionally communicationinterfaces and/or paths and/or connections. The target indication may bea higher-layer indication and/or the information provided by theinformation system may be higher-layer information, e.g. applicationlayer or user-layer, in particular above radio layers like transportlayer and physical layer. The target indication may be mapped onphysical layer radio signaling, e.g. related to or on the user-plane,and/or the information may be mapped on physical layer radiocommunication signaling, e.g. related to or on the user-plane (inparticular, in reverse communication directions). The describedapproaches allow a target indication to be provided, facilitatinginformation to be provided in a specific format particularly suitableand/or adapted to efficiently use an air interface. A user input may forexample represent a selection from a plurality of possible transmissionmodes or formats, and/or paths, e.g. in terms of data rate and/orpackaging and/or size of information to be provided by the informationsystem.

In general, a numerology and/or subcarrier spacing may indicate thebandwidth (in frequency domain) of a subcarrier of a carrier, and/or thenumber of subcarriers in a carrier and/or the numbering of thesubcarriers in a carrier, and/or the symbol time length. Differentnumerologies may in particular be different in the bandwidth of asubcarrier. In some variants, all the subcarriers in a carrier have thesame bandwidth associated to them. The numerology and/or subcarrierspacing may be different between carriers in particular regarding thesubcarrier bandwidth. A symbol time length, and/or a time length of atiming structure pertaining to a carrier may be dependent on the carrierfrequency, and/or the subcarrier spacing and/or the numerology. Inparticular, different numerologies may have different symbol timelengths, even on the same carrier.

Signaling may generally comprise one or more (e.g., modulation) symbolsand/or signals and/or messages. A signal may comprise or represent oneor more bits. An indication may represent signaling, and/or beimplemented as a signal, or as a plurality of signals. One or moresignals may be included in and/or represented by a message. Signaling,in particular control signaling, may comprise a plurality of signalsand/or messages, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/orbe associated to different signaling processes, e.g. representing and/orpertaining to one or more such processes and/or correspondinginformation. An indication may comprise signaling, and/or a plurality ofsignals and/or messages and/or may be comprised therein, which may betransmitted on different carriers and/or be associated to differentacknowledgement signaling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertainingto one or more such processes. Signaling associated to a channel may betransmitted such that represents signaling and/or information for thatchannel, and/or that the signaling is interpreted by the transmitterand/or receiver to belong to that channel. Such signaling may generallycomply with transmission parameters and/or format/s for the channel.

An antenna arrangement may comprise one or more antenna elements(radiating elements), which may be combined in antenna arrays. Anantenna array or subarray may comprise one antenna element, or aplurality of antenna elements, which may be arranged e.g. twodimensionally (for example, a panel) or three dimensionally. It may beconsidered that each antenna array or subarray or element is separatelycontrollable, respectively that different antenna arrays arecontrollable separately from each other. A single antennaelement/radiator may be considered the smallest example of a subarray.Examples of antenna arrays comprise one or more multi-antenna panels orone or more individually controllable antenna elements. An antennaarrangement may comprise a plurality of antenna arrays. It may beconsidered that an antenna arrangement is associated to a (specificand/or single) radio node, e.g. a configuring or informing or schedulingradio node, e.g. to be controlled or controllable by the radio node. Anantenna arrangement associated to a UE or terminal may be smaller (e.g.,in size and/or number of antenna elements or arrays) than the antennaarrangement associated to a network node. Antenna elements of an antennaarrangement may be configurable for different arrays, e.g. to change thebeamforming characteristics. In particular, antenna arrays may be formedby combining one or more independently or separately controllableantenna elements or subarrays. The beams may be provided by analogbeamforming, or in some variants by digital beamforming, or by hybridbeamforming combing analog and digital beamforming. The informing radionodes may be configured with the manner of beam transmission, e.g. bytransmitting a corresponding indicator or indication, for example asbeam identify indication. However, there may be considered cases inwhich the informing radio node/s are not configured with suchinformation, and/or operate transparently, not knowing the way ofbeamforming used. An antenna arrangement may be considered separatelycontrollable in regard to the phase and/or amplitude/power and/or gainof a signal feed to it for transmission, and/or separately controllableantenna arrangements may comprise an independent or separate transmitand/or receive unit and/or ADC (Analog-Digital-Converter, alternativelyan ADC chain) or DCA (Digital-to-Analog Converter, alternatively a DCAchain) to convert digital control information into an analog antennafeed for the whole antenna arrangement (the ADC/DCA may be consideredpart of, and/or connected or connectable to, antenna circuitry) or viceversa. A scenario in which an ADC or DCA is controlled directly forbeamforming may be considered an analog beamforming scenario; suchcontrolling may be performed after encoding/decoding and7or aftermodulation symbols have been mapped to resource elements. This may be onthe level of antenna arrangements using the same ADC/DCA, e.g. oneantenna element or a group of antenna elements associated to the sameADC/DCA. Digital beamforming may correspond to a scenario in whichprocessing for beamforming is provided before feeding signaling to theADC/DCA, e.g. by using one or more precoder/s and/or by precodinginformation, for example before and/or when mapping modulation symbolsto resource elements. Such a precoder for beamforming may provideweights, e.g. for amplitude and/or phase, and/or may be based on a(precoder) codebook, e.g. selected from a codebook. A precoder maypertain to one beam or more beams, e.g. defining the beam or beams. Thecodebook may be configured or configurable, and/or be predefined. DFTbeamforming may be considered a form of digital beamforming, wherein aDFT procedure is used to form one or more beams. Hybrid forms ofbeamforming may be considered.

A beam may be defined by a spatial and/or angular and/or spatial angulardistribution of radiation and/or a spatial angle (also referred to assolid angle) or spatial (solid) angle distribution into which radiationis transmitted (for transmission beamforming) or from which it isreceived (for reception beamforming). Reception beamforming may compriseonly accepting signals coming in from a reception beam (e.g., usinganalog beamforming to not receive outside reception beam/s), and/orsorting out signals that do not come in in a reception beam, e.g. indigital postprocessing, e.g. digital beamforming. A beam may have asolid angle equal to or smaller than 4*pi sr (4*pi correspond to a beamcovering all directions), in particular smaller than 2*pi, or pi, orpi/2, or pi/4 or pi/8 or pi/16. In particular for high frequencies,smaller beams may be used. Different beams may have different directionsand/or sizes (e.g., solid angle and/or reach). A beam may have a maindirection, which may be defined by a main lobe (e.g., center of the mainlobe, e.g. pertaining to signal strength and/or solid angle, which maybe averaged and/or weighted to determine the direction), and may haveone or more sidelobes. A lobe may generally be defined to have acontinuous or contiguous distribution of energy and/or power transmittedand/or received, e.g. bounded by one or more contiguous or contiguousregions of zero energy (or practically zero energy). A main lobe maycomprise the lobe with the largest signal strength and/or energy and/orpower content. However, sidelobes usually appear due to limitations ofbeamforming, some of which may carry signals with significant strength,and may cause multi-path effects. A sidelobe may generally have adifferent direction than a main lobe and/or other side lobes, however,due to reflections a sidelobe still may contribute to transmitted and/orreceived energy or power. A beam may be swept and/or switched over time,e.g., such that its (main) direction is changed, but its shape(angular/solid angle distribution) around the main direction is notchanged, e.g. from the transmitter's views for a transmission beam, orthe receiver's view for a reception beam, respectively. Sweeping maycorrespond to continuous or near continuous change of main direction(e.g., such that after each change, the main lobe from before the changecovers at least partly the main lobe after the change, e.g. at least to50 or 75 or 90 percent). Switching may correspond to switching directionnon-continuously, e.g. such that after each change, the main lobe frombefore the change does not cover the main lobe after the change, e.g. atmost to 50 or 25 or 10 percent.

Signal strength may be a representation of signal power and/or signalenergy, e.g. as seen from a transmitting node or a receiving node. Abeam with larger strength at transmission (e.g., according to thebeamforming used) than another beam does may not necessarily have largerstrength at the receiver, and vice versa, for example due tointerference and/or obstruction and/or dispersion and/or absorptionand/or reflection and/or attrition or other effects influencing a beamor the signaling it carries. Signal quality may in general be arepresentation of how well a signal may be received over noise and/orinterference. A beam with better signal quality than another beam doesnot necessarily have a larger beam strength than the other beam. Signalquality may be represented for example by SIR, SNR, SINR, BER, BLER,Energy per resource element over noise/interference or anothercorresponding quality measure. Signal quality and/or signal strength maypertain to, and/or may be measured with respect to, a beam, and/orspecific signaling carried by the beam, e.g. reference signaling and/ora specific channel, e.g. a data channel or control channel. Signalstrength may be represented by received signal strength, and/or relativesignal strength, e.g. in comparison to a reference signal (strength).

Uplink or sidelink signaling may be OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiple Access) or SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division MultipleAccess) signaling. Downlink signaling may in particular be OFDMAsignaling. However, signaling is not limited thereto (Filter-Bank basedsignaling and/or Single-Carrier based signaling, e.g. SC-FDE signaling,may be considered alternatives).

A radio node may generally be considered a device or node adapted forwireless and/or radio (and/or millimeter wave) frequency communication,and/or for communication utilising an air interface, e.g. according to acommunication standard.

A radio node may be a network node, or a user equipment or terminal. Anetwork node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network,e.g. a base station and/or gNodeB (gNB) and/or eNodeB (eNB) and/or relaynode and/or micro/nano/pico/femto node and/or transmission point (TP)and/or access point (AP) and/or other node, in particular for a RAN orother wireless communication network as described herein.

The terms user equipment (UE) and terminal may be considered to beinterchangeable in the context of this disclosure. A wireless device,user equipment or terminal may represent an end device for communicationutilising the wireless communication network, and/or be implemented as auser equipment according to a standard. Examples of user equipments maycomprise a phone like a smartphone, a personal communication device, amobile phone or terminal, a computer, in particular laptop, a sensor ormachine with radio capability (and/or adapted for the air interface), inparticular for MTC (Machine-Type-Communication, sometimes also referredto M2M, Machine-To-Machine), or a vehicle adapted for wirelesscommunication. A user equipment or terminal may be mobile or stationary.A wireless device generally may comprise, and/or be implemented as,processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, which may comprise one ormore chips or sets of chips. The circuitry and/or circuitries may bepackaged, e.g. in a chip housing, and/or may have one or more physicalinterfaces to interact with other circuitry and/or for power supply.Such a wireless device may be intended for use in a user equipment orterminal.

A radio node may generally comprise processing circuitry and/or radiocircuitry. A radio node, in particular a network node, may in some casescomprise cable circuitry and/or communication circuitry, with which itmay be connected or connectable to another radio node and/or a corenetwork.

Circuitry may comprise integrated circuitry. Processing circuitry maycomprise one or more processors and/or controllers (e.g.,microcontrollers), and/or ASICs (Application Specific IntegratedCircuitry) and/or FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array), or similar. Itmay be considered that processing circuitry comprises, and/or is(operatively) connected or connectable to one or more memories or memoryarrangements. A memory arrangement may comprise one or more memories. Amemory may be adapted to store digital information. Examples formemories comprise volatile and non-volatile memory, and/or Random AccessMemory (RAM), and/or Read-Only-Memory (ROM), and/or magnetic and/oroptical memory, and/or flash memory, and/or hard disk memory, and/orEPROM or EEPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM or Electrically ErasableProgrammable ROM).

Radio circuitry may comprise one or more transmitters and/or receiversand/or transceivers (a transceiver may operate or be operable astransmitter and receiver, and/or may comprise joint or separatedcircuitry for receiving and transmitting, e.g. in one package orhousing), and/or may comprise one or more amplifiers and/or oscillatorsand/or filters, and/or may comprise, and/or be connected or connectableto antenna circuitry and/or one or more antennas and/or antenna arrays.An antenna array may comprise one or more antennas, which may bearranged in a dimensional array, e.g. 2D or 3D array, and/or antennapanels. A remote radio head (RRH) may be considered as an example of anantenna array. However, in some variants, an RRH may be also beimplemented as a network node, depending on the kind of circuitry and/orfunctionality implemented therein.

Communication circuitry may comprise radio circuitry and/or cablecircuitry. Communication circuitry generally may comprise one or moreinterfaces, which may be air interface/s and/or cable interface/s and/oroptical interface/s, e.g. laser-based. Interface/s may be in particularpacket-based. Cable circuitry and/or a cable interfaces may comprise,and/or be connected or connectable to, one or more cables (e.g., opticalfiber-based and/or wire-based), which may be directly or indirectly(e.g., via one or more intermediate systems and/or interfaces) beconnected or connectable to a target, e.g. controlled by communicationcircuitry and/or processing circuitry.

Any one or all of the modules disclosed herein may be implemented insoftware and/or firmware and/or hardware. Different modules may beassociated to different components of a radio node, e.g. differentcircuitries or different parts of a circuitry. It may be considered thata module is distributed over different components and/or circuitries. Aprogram product as described herein may comprise the modules related toa device on which the program product is intended (e.g., a userequipment or network node) to be executed (the execution may beperformed on, and/or controlled by the associated circuitry).

A wireless communication network may be or comprise a radio accessnetwork and/or a backhaul network (e.g. a relay or backhaul network oran IAB network), and/or a Radio Access Network (RAN) in particularaccording to a communication standard. A communication standard may inparticular a standard according to 3GPP and/or 5G, e.g. according to NRor LTE, in particular LTE Evolution.

A wireless communication network may be and/or comprise a Radio AccessNetwork (RAN), which may be and/or comprise any kind of cellular and/orwireless radio network, which may be connected or connectable to a corenetwork. The approaches described herein are particularly suitable for a5G network, e.g. LTE Evolution and/or NR (New Radio), respectivelysuccessors thereof. A RAN may comprise one or more network nodes, and/orone or more terminals, and/or one or more radio nodes. A network nodemay in particular be a radio node adapted for radio and/or wirelessand/or cellular communication with one or more terminals. A terminal maybe any device adapted for radio and/or wireless and/or cellularcommunication with or within a RAN, e.g. a user equipment (UE) or mobilephone or smartphone or computing device or vehicular communicationdevice or device for machine-type-communication (MTC), etc. A terminalmay be mobile, or in some cases stationary. A RAN or a wirelesscommunication network may comprise at least one network node and a UE,or at least two radio nodes. There may be generally considered awireless communication network or system, e.g. a RAN or RAN system,comprising at least one radio node, and/or at least one network node andat least one terminal.

Transmitting in downlink may pertain to transmission from the network ornetwork node to the terminal. Transmitting in uplink may pertain totransmission from the terminal to the network or network node.Transmitting in sidelink may pertain to (direct) transmission from oneterminal to another. Uplink, downlink and sidelink (e.g., sidelinktransmission and reception) may be considered communication directions.In some variants, uplink and downlink may also be used to describedwireless communication between network nodes, e.g. for wireless backhauland/or relay communication and/or (wireless) network communication forexample between base stations or similar network nodes, in particularcommunication terminating at such. It may be considered that backhauland/or relay communication and/or network communication is implementedas a form of sidelink or uplink communication or similar thereto.

Control information or a control information message or correspondingsignaling (control signaling) may be transmitted on a control channel,e.g. a physical control channel, which may be a downlink channel or (ora sidelink channel in some cases, e.g. one UE scheduling another UE).For example, control information/allocation information may be signaledby a network node on PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) and/or aPDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel.Acknowledgement signaling, e.g. as a form of control information orsignaling like uplink control information/signaling, may be transmittedby a terminal on a PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) and/or PUSCH(Physical Uplink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel.Multiple channels may apply for multi-component/multi-carrier indicationor signaling.

Signaling may generally be considered to represent an electromagneticwave structure (e.g., over a time interval and frequency interval),which is intended to convey information to at least one specific orgeneric (e.g., anyone who might pick up the signaling) target. A processof signaling may comprise transmitting the signaling. Transmittingsignaling, in particular control signaling or communication signaling,e.g. comprising or representing acknowledgement signaling and/orresource requesting information, may comprise encoding and/ormodulating. Encoding and/or modulating may comprise error detectioncoding and/or forward error correction encoding and/or scrambling.Receiving control signaling may comprise corresponding decoding and/ordemodulation. Error detection coding may comprise, and/or be based on,parity or checksum approaches, e.g. CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check).Forward error correction coding may comprise and/or be based on forexample turbo coding and/or Reed-Muller coding, and/or polar codingand/or LDPC coding (Low Density Parity Check). The type of coding usedmay be based on the channel (e.g., physical channel) the coded signal isassociated to. A code rate may represent the ratio of the number ofinformation bits before encoding to the number of encoded bits afterencoding, considering that encoding adds coding bits for error detectioncoding and forward error correction. Coded bits may refer to informationbits (also called systematic bits) plus coding bits.

Communication signaling may comprise, and/or represent, and/or beimplemented as, data signaling, and/or user plane signaling, and/or maycarry user data or payload data; in some cases, alternatively oradditionally, communication signaling may comprise control signalingand/or carry control information. Communication signaling may beassociated to a data channel, e.g. a physical downlink channel orphysical uplink channel or physical sidelink channel, in particular aPDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) or PSSCH (Physical SidelinkShared Channel). Generally, a data channel may be a shared channel or adedicated channel. Data signaling may be signaling associated to and/oron a data channel.

An indication generally may explicitly and/or implicitly indicate theinformation it represents and/or indicates. Implicit indication may forexample be based on position and/or resource used for transmission.Explicit indication may for example be based on a parametrisation withone or more parameters, and/or one or more index or indices, and/or oneor more bit patterns representing the information. It may in particularbe considered that control signaling as described herein, based on theutilised resource sequence, implicitly indicates the control signalingtype.

A resource element may generally describe the smallest individuallyusable and/or encodable and/or decodable and/or modulatable and/ordemodulatable time-frequency resource, and/or may describe atime-frequency resource covering a symbol time length in time and asubcarrier in frequency. A signal may be allocatable and/or allocated toa resource element. A subcarrier may be a subband of a carrier, e.g. asdefined by a standard. A carrier may define a frequency and/or frequencyband for transmission and/or reception. In some variants, a signal(jointly encoded/modulated) may cover more than one resource elements. Aresource element may generally be as defined by a correspondingstandard, e.g. NR or LTE. As symbol time length and/or subcarrierspacing (and/or numerology) may be different between different symbolsand/or subcarriers, different resource elements may have differentextension (length/width) in time and/or frequency domain, in particularresource elements pertaining to different carriers.

A resource generally may represent a time-frequency and/or coderesource, on which signaling, e.g. according to a specific format, maybe communicated, for example transmitted and/or received, and/or beintended for transmission and/or reception.

A border symbol may generally represent a starting symbol or an endingsymbol for transmitting and/or receiving. A starting symbol may inparticular be a starting symbol of uplink or sidelink signaling, forexample control signaling or data signaling. Such signaling may be on adata channel or control channel, e.g. a physical channel, in particulara physical uplink shared channel (like PUSCH) or a sidelink data orshared channel, or a physical uplink control channel (like PUCCH) or asidelink control channel. If the starting symbol is associated tocontrol signaling (e.g., on a control channel), the control signalingmay be in response to received signaling (in sidelink or downlink), e.g.representing acknowledgement signaling associated thereto, which may beHARQ or ARQ signaling. An ending symbol may represent an ending symbol(in time) of downlink or sidelink transmission or signaling, which maybe intended or scheduled for the radio node or user equipment. Suchdownlink signaling may in particular be data signaling, e.g. on aphysical downlink channel like a shared channel, e.g. a PDSCH (PhysicalDownlink Shared Channel). A starting symbol may be determined based on,and/or in relation to, such an ending symbol.

Configuring a radio node, in particular a terminal or user equipment,may refer to the radio node being adapted or caused or set and/orinstructed to operate according to the configuration. Configuring may bedone by another device, e.g., a network node (for example, a radio nodeof the network like a base station or eNodeB) or network, in which caseit may comprise transmitting configuration data to the radio node to beconfigured. Such configuration data may represent the configuration tobe configured and/or comprise one or more instruction pertaining to aconfiguration, e.g. a configuration for transmitting and/or receiving onallocated resources, in particular frequency resources. A radio node mayconfigure itself, e.g., based on configuration data received from anetwork or network node. A network node may utilise, and/or be adaptedto utilise, its circuitry/ies for configuring. Allocation informationmay be considered a form of configuration data. Configuration data maycomprise and/or be represented by configuration information, and/or oneor more corresponding indications and/or message/s

Generally, configuring may include determining configuration datarepresenting the configuration and providing, e.g. transmitting, it toone or more other nodes (parallel and/or sequentially), which maytransmit it further to the radio node (or another node, which may berepeated until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively, oradditionally, configuring a radio node, e.g., by a network node or otherdevice, may include receiving configuration data and/or data pertainingto configuration data, e.g., from another node like a network node,which may be a higher-level node of the network, and/or transmittingreceived configuration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determininga configuration and transmitting the configuration data to the radionode may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which maybe able to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interfacein the case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring aterminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissionsfor the terminal, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signalingand/or DCI and/or uplink control or data or communication signaling, inparticular acknowledgement signaling, and/or configuring resourcesand/or a resource pool therefor.

A resource structure may be considered to be neighbored in frequencydomain by another resource structure, if they share a common borderfrequency, e.g. one as an upper frequency border and the other as alower frequency border. Such a border may for example be represented bythe upper end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n, which alsorepresents the lower end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n+1. Aresource structure may be considered to be neighbored in time domain byanother resource structure, if they share a common border time, e.g. oneas an upper (or right in the figures) border and the other as a lower(or left in the figures) border. Such a border may for example berepresented by the end of the symbol time interval assigned to a symboln, which also represents the beginning of a symbol time intervalassigned to a symbol n+1.

Generally, a resource structure being neighbored by another resourcestructure in a domain may also be referred to as abutting and/orbordering the other resource structure in the domain.

A resource structure may general represent a structure in time and/orfrequency domain, in particular representing a time interval and afrequency interval. A resource structure may comprise and/or becomprised of resource elements, and/or the time interval of a resourcestructure may comprise and/or be comprised of symbol time interval/s,and/or the frequency interval of a resource structure may compriseand/or be comprised of subcarrier/s. A resource element may beconsidered an example for a resource structure, a slot or mini-slot or aPhysical Resource Block (PRB) or parts thereof may be considered others.A resource structure may be associated to a specific channel, e.g. aPUSCH or PUCCH, in particular resource structure smaller than a slot orPRB.

Examples of a resource structure in frequency domain comprise abandwidth or band, or a bandwidth part. A bandwidth part may be a partof a bandwidth available for a radio node for communicating, e.g. due tocircuitry and/or configuration and/or regulations and/or a standard. Abandwidth part may be configured or configurable to a radio node. Insome variants, a bandwidth part may be the part of a bandwidth used forcommunicating, e.g. transmitting and/or receiving, by a radio node. Thebandwidth part may be smaller than the bandwidth (which may be a devicebandwidth defined by the circuitry/configuration of a device, and/or asystem bandwidth, e.g. available for a RAN). It may be considered that abandwidth part comprises one or more resource blocks or resource blockgroups, in particular one or more PRBs or PRB groups. A bandwidth partmay pertain to, and/or comprise, one or more carriers.

A carrier may generally represent a frequency range or band and/orpertain to a central frequency and an associated frequency interval. Itmay be considered that a carrier comprises a plurality of subcarriers. Acarrier may have assigned to it a central frequency or center frequencyinterval, e.g. represented by one or more subcarriers (to eachsubcarrier there may be generally assigned a frequency bandwidth orinterval). Different carriers may be non-overlapping, and/or may beneighboring in frequency domain.

It should be noted that the term “radio” in this disclosure may beconsidered to pertain to wireless communication in general, and may alsoinclude wireless communication utilising millimeter waves, in particularabove one of the thresholds 10 GHz or 20 GHz or 50 GHz or 52 GHz or 52.6GHz or 60 GHz or 72 GHz or 100 GHz or 114 GHz. Such communication mayutilise one or more carriers, e.g. in FDD and/or carrier aggregation.Upper frequency boundaries may correspond to 300 GHz or 200 GHz or 120GHz or any of the thresholds larger than the one representing the lowerfrequency boundary.

A radio node, in particular a network node or a terminal, may generallybe any device adapted for transmitting and/or receiving radio and/orwireless signals and/or data, in particular communication data, inparticular on at least one carrier. The at least one carrier maycomprise a carrier accessed based on an LBT procedure (which may becalled LBT carrier), e.g., an unlicensed carrier. It may be consideredthat the carrier is part of a carrier aggregate.

Receiving or transmitting on a cell or carrier may refer to receiving ortransmitting utilizing a frequency (band) or spectrum associated to thecell or carrier. A cell may generally comprise and/or be defined by orfor one or more carriers, in particular at least one carrier for ULcommunication/transmission (called UL carrier) and at least one carrierfor DL communication/transmission (called DL carrier). It may beconsidered that a cell comprises different numbers of UL carriers and DLcarriers. Alternatively, or additionally, a cell may comprise at leastone carrier for UL communication/transmission and DLcommunication/transmission, e.g., in TDD-based approaches.

A channel may generally be a logical, transport or physical channel. Achannel may comprise and/or be arranged on one or more carriers, inparticular a plurality of subcarriers. A channel carrying and/or forcarrying control signaling/control information may be considered acontrol channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/orif it carries control plane information. Analogously, a channel carryingand/or for carrying data signaling/user information may be considered adata channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/or ifit carries user plane information. A channel may be defined for aspecific communication direction, or for two complementary communicationdirections (e.g., UL and DL, or sidelink in two directions), in whichcase it may be considered to have two component channels, one for eachdirection. Examples of channels comprise a channel for low latencyand/or high reliability transmission, in particular a channel forUltra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC), which may be forcontrol and/or data.

In general, a symbol may represent and/or be associated to a symbol timelength, which may be dependent on the carrier and/or subcarrier spacingand/or numerology of the associated carrier. Accordingly, a symbol maybe considered to indicate a time interval having a symbol time length inrelation to frequency domain. A symbol time length may be dependent on acarrier frequency and/or bandwidth and/or numerology and/or subcarrierspacing of, or associated to, a symbol. Accordingly, different symbolsmay have different symbol time lengths. In particular, numerologies withdifferent subcarrier spacings may have different symbol time length.Generally, a symbol time length may be based on, and/or include, a guardtime interval or cyclic extension, e.g. prefix or postfix.

A sidelink may generally represent a communication channel (or channelstructure) between two UEs and/or terminals, in which data istransmitted between the participants (UEs and/or terminals) via thecommunication channel, e.g. directly and/or without being relayed via anetwork node. A sidelink may be established only and/or directly via airinterface/s of the participant, which may be directly linked via thesidelink communication channel. In some variants, sidelink communicationmay be performed without interaction by a network node, e.g. on fixedlydefined resources and/or on resources negotiated between theparticipants. Alternatively, or additionally, it may be considered thata network node provides some control functionality, e.g. by configuringresources, in particular one or more resource pool/s, for sidelinkcommunication, and/or monitoring a sidelink, e.g. for charging purposes.

Sidelink communication may also be referred to as device-to-device (D2D)communication, and/or in some cases as ProSe (Proximity Services)communication, e.g. in the context of LTE. A sidelink may be implementedin the context of V2x communication (Vehicular communication), e.g. V2V(Vehicle-to-Vehicle), V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) and/or V2P(Vehicle-to-Person). Any device adapted for sidelink communication maybe considered a user equipment or terminal.

A sidelink communication channel (or structure) may comprise one or more(e.g., physical or logical) channels, e.g. a PSCCH (Physical SidelinkControl CHannel, which may for example carry control information like anacknowledgement position indication, and/or a PSSCH (Physical SidelinkShared CHannel, which for example may carry data and/or acknowledgementsignaling). It may be considered that a sidelink communication channel(or structure) pertains to and/or used one or more carrier/s and/orfrequency range/s associated to, and/or being used by, cellularcommunication, e.g. according to a specific license and/or standard.Participants may share a (physical) channel and/or resources, inparticular in frequency domain and/or related to a frequency resourcelike a carrier) of a sidelink, such that two or more participantstransmit thereon, e.g. simultaneously, and/or time-shifted, and/or theremay be associated specific channels and/or resources to specificparticipants, so that for example only one participant transmits on aspecific channel or on a specific resource or specific resources, e.g.,in frequency domain and/or related to one or more carriers orsubcarriers.

A sidelink may comply with, and/or be implemented according to, aspecific standard, e.g. an LTE-based standard and/or NR. A sidelink mayutilise TDD (Time Division Duplex) and/or FDD (Frequency DivisionDuplex) technology, e.g. as configured by a network node, and/orpreconfigured and/or negotiated between the participants. A userequipment may be considered to be adapted for sidelink communication ifit, and/or its radio circuitry and/or processing circuitry, is adaptedfor utilising a sidelink, e.g. on one or more frequency ranges and/orcarriers and/or in one or more formats, in particular according to aspecific standard. It may be generally considered that a Radio AccessNetwork is defined by two participants of a sidelink communication.Alternatively, or additionally, a Radio Access Network may berepresented, and/or defined with, and/or be related to a network nodeand/or communication with such a node.

Communication or communicating may generally comprise transmittingand/or receiving signaling. Communication on a sidelink (or sidelinksignaling) may comprise utilising the sidelink for communication(respectively, for signaling). Sidelink transmission and/or transmittingon a sidelink may be considered to comprise transmission utilising thesidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/orcircuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink reception and/or receivingon a sidelink may be considered to comprise reception utilising thesidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/orcircuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink control information (e.g.,SCI) may generally be considered to comprise control informationtransmitted utilising a sidelink.

Generally, carrier aggregation (CA) may refer to the concept of a radioconnection and/or communication link between a wireless and/or cellularcommunication network and/or network node and a terminal or on asidelink comprising a plurality of carriers for at least one directionof transmission (e.g. DL and/or UL), as well as to the aggregate ofcarriers. A corresponding communication link may be referred to ascarrier aggregated communication link or CA communication link; carriersin a carrier aggregate may be referred to as component carriers (CC). Insuch a link, data may be transmitted over more than one of the carriersand/or all the carriers of the carrier aggregation (the aggregate ofcarriers). A carrier aggregation may comprise one (or more) dedicatedcontrol carriers and/or primary carriers (which may e.g. be referred toas primary component carrier or PCC), over which control information maybe transmitted, wherein the control information may refer to the primarycarrier and other carriers, which may be referred to as secondarycarriers (or secondary component carrier, SCC). However, in someapproaches, control information may be sent over more than one carrierof an aggregate, e.g. one or more PCCs and one PCC and one or more SCCs.

A transmission may generally pertain to a specific channel and/orspecific resources, in particular with a starting symbol and endingsymbol in time, covering the interval therebetween. A scheduledtransmission may be a transmission scheduled and/or expected and/or forwhich resources are scheduled or provided or reserved. However, notevery scheduled transmission has to be realized. For example, ascheduled downlink transmission may not be received, or a scheduleduplink transmission may not be transmitted due to power limitations, orother influences (e.g., a channel on an unlicensed carrier beingoccupied). A transmission may be scheduled for a transmission timingsubstructure (e.g., a mini-slot, and/or covering only a part of atransmission timing structure) within a transmission timing structurelike a slot. A border symbol may be indicative of a symbol in thetransmission timing structure at which the transmission starts or ends.

Predefined in the context of this disclosure may refer to the relatedinformation being defined for example in a standard, and/or beingavailable without specific configuration from a network or network node,e.g. stored in memory, for example independent of being configured.Configured or configurable may be considered to pertain to thecorresponding information being set/configured, e.g. by the network or anetwork node.

A configuration or schedule, like a mini-slot configuration and/orstructure configuration, may schedule transmissions, e.g. for thetime/transmissions it is valid, and/or transmissions may be scheduled byseparate signaling or separate configuration, e.g. separate RRCsignaling and/or downlink control information signaling. Thetransmission/s scheduled may represent signaling to be transmitted bythe device for which it is scheduled, or signaling to be received by thedevice for which it is scheduled, depending on which side of acommunication the device is. It should be noted that downlink controlinformation or specifically DCI signaling may be considered physicallayer signaling, in contrast to higher layer signaling like MAC (MediumAccess Control) signaling or RRC layer signaling. The higher the layerof signaling is, the less frequent/the more time/resource consuming itmay be considered, at least partially due to the information containedin such signaling having to be passed on through several layers, eachlayer requiring processing and handling.

A scheduled transmission, and/or transmission timing structure like amini-slot or slot, may pertain to a specific channel, in particular aphysical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel, or aphysical downlink shared channel, e.g. PUSCH, PUCCH or PDSCH, and/or maypertain to a specific cell and/or carrier aggregation. A correspondingconfiguration, e.g. scheduling configuration or symbol configuration maypertain to such channel, cell and/or carrier aggregation. It may beconsidered that the scheduled transmission represents transmission on aphysical channel, in particular a shared physical channel, for example aphysical uplink shared channel or physical downlink shared channel. Forsuch channels, semi-persistent configuring may be particularly suitable.

Generally, a configuration may be a configuration indicating timing,and/or be represented or configured with corresponding configurationdata. A configuration may be embedded in, and/or comprised in, a messageor configuration or corresponding data, which may indicate and/orschedule resources, in particular semi-persistently and/orsemi-statically.

A control region of a transmission timing structure may be an intervalin time and/or frequency domain for intended or scheduled or reservedfor control signaling, in particular downlink control signaling, and/orfor a specific control channel, e.g. a physical downlink control channellike PDCCH. The interval may comprise, and/or consist of, a number ofsymbols in time, which may be configured or configurable, e.g. by(UE-specific) dedicated signaling (which may be single-cast, for exampleaddressed to or intended for a specific UE), e.g. on a PDCCH, or RRCsignaling, or on a multicast or broadcast channel. In general, thetransmission timing structure may comprise a control region covering aconfigurable number of symbols. It may be considered that in general theborder symbol is configured to be after the control region in time. Acontrol region may be associated, e.g. via configuration and/ordetermination, to one or more specific UEs and/or formats of PDCCHand/or DCI and/or identifiers, e.g. UE identifiers and/or RNTIs orcarrier/cell identifiers, and/or be represented and/or associated to aCORESET and/or a search space.

The duration of a symbol (symbol time length or interval) of thetransmission timing structure may generally be dependent on a numerologyand/or carrier, wherein the numerology and/or carrier may beconfigurable. The numerology may be the numerology to be used for thescheduled transmission.

A transmission timing structure may comprise a plurality of symbols,and/or define an interval comprising several symbols (respectively theirassociated time intervals). In the context of this disclosure, it shouldbe noted that a reference to a symbol for ease of reference may beinterpreted to refer to the time domain projection or time interval ortime component or duration or length in time of the symbol, unless it isclear from the context that the frequency domain component also has tobe considered. Examples of transmission timing structures include slot,subframe, mini-slot (which also may be considered a substructure of aslot), slot aggregation (which may comprise a plurality of slots and maybe considered a superstructure of a slot), respectively their timedomain component. A transmission timing structure may generally comprisea plurality of symbols defining the time domain extension (e.g.,interval or length or duration) of the transmission timing structure,and arranged neighboring to each other in a numbered sequence. A timingstructure (which may also be considered or implemented assynchronisation structure) may be defined by a succession of suchtransmission timing structures, which may for example define a timinggrid with symbols representing the smallest grid structures. Atransmission timing structure, and/or a border symbol or a scheduledtransmission may be determined or scheduled in relation to such a timinggrid. A transmission timing structure of reception may be thetransmission timing structure in which the scheduling control signalingis received, e.g. in relation to the timing grid. A transmission timingstructure may in particular be a slot or subframe or in some cases, amini-slot.

Feedback signaling may be considered a form or control signaling, e.g.uplink or sidelink control signaling, like UCI (Uplink ControlInformation) signaling or SCI (Sidelink Control Information) signaling.Feedback signaling may in particular comprise and/or representacknowledgement signaling and/or acknowledgement information and/ormeasurement reporting.

Signaling utilising, and/or on and/or associated to, resources or aresource structure may be signaling covering the resources or structure,signaling on the associated frequency/ies and/or in the associated timeinterval/s. It may be considered that a signaling resource structurecomprises and/or encompasses one or more substructures, which may beassociated to one or more different channels and/or types of signalingand/or comprise one or more holes (resource element/s not scheduled fortransmissions or reception of transmissions). A resource substructure,e.g. a feedback resource structure, may generally be continuous in timeand/or frequency, within the associated intervals. It may be consideredthat a substructure, in particular a feedback resource structure,represents a rectangle filled with one or more resource elements intime/frequency space. However, in some cases, a resource structure orsubstructure, in particular a frequency resource range, may represent anon-continuous pattern of resources in one or more domains, e.g. timeand/or frequency. The resource elements of a substructure may bescheduled for associated signaling.

Example types of signaling comprise signaling of a specificcommunication direction, in particular, uplink signaling, downlinksignaling, sidelink signaling, as well as reference signaling (e.g., SRSor CRS or CSI-RS), communication signaling, control signaling, and/orsignaling associated to a specific channel like PUSCH, PDSCH, PUCCH,PDCCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, etc.).

In the context of this disclosure, there may be distinguished betweendynamically scheduled or aperiodic transmission and/or configuration,and semi-static or semi-persistent or periodic transmission and/orconfiguration. The term “dynamic” or similar terms may generally pertainto configuration/transmission valid and/or scheduled and/or configuredfor (relatively) short timescales and/or a (e.g., predefined and/orconfigured and/or limited and/or definite) number of occurrences and/ortransmission timing structures, e.g. one or more transmission timingstructures like slots or slot aggregations, and/or for one or more(e.g., specific number) of transmission/occurrences. Dynamicconfiguration may be based on low-level signaling, e.g. controlsignaling on the physical layer and/or MAC layer, in particular in theform of DCI or SCI. Periodic/semi-static may pertain to longertimescales, e.g. several slots and/or more than one frame, and/or anon-defined number of occurrences, e.g., until a dynamic configurationcontradicts, or until a new periodic configuration arrives. A periodicor semi-static configuration may be based on, and/or be configured with,higher-layer signaling, in particular RCL layer signaling and/or RRCsignaling and/or MAC signaling.

In this disclosure, for purposes of explanation and not limitation,specific details are set forth (such as particular network functions,processes and signaling steps) in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the technique presented herein. It will be apparent toone skilled in the art that the present concepts and aspects may bepracticed in other variants and variants that depart from these specificdetails.

For example, the concepts and variants are partially described in thecontext of Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) or NewRadio mobile or wireless communications technologies; however, this doesnot rule out the use of the present concepts and aspects in connectionwith additional or alternative mobile communication technologies such asthe Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) or IEEE standards asIEEE 802.11ad or IEEE 802.11 ay. While described variants may pertain tocertain Technical Specifications (TSs) of the Third GenerationPartnership Project (3GPP), it will be appreciated that the presentapproaches, concepts and aspects could also be realized in connectionwith different Performance Management (PM) specifications.

Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the services,functions and steps explained herein may be implemented using softwarefunctioning in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor, or using anApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Digital SignalProcessor (DSP), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or generalpurpose computer. It will also be appreciated that while the variantsdescribed herein are elucidated in the context of methods and devices,the concepts and aspects presented herein may also be embodied in aprogram product as well as in a system comprising control circuitry,e.g. a computer processor and a memory coupled to the processor, whereinthe memory is encoded with one or more programs or program products thatexecute the services, functions and steps disclosed herein.

It is believed that the advantages of the aspects and variants presentedherein will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and itwill be apparent that various changes may be made in the form,constructions and arrangement of the exemplary aspects thereof withoutdeparting from the scope of the concepts and aspects described herein orwithout sacrificing all of its advantageous effects. The aspectspresented herein can be varied in many ways.

Some useful abbreviations comprise

Abbreviation Explanation ACK/NACK Acknowledgment/NegativeAcknowledgement ARQ Automatic Repeat reQuest BER Bit Error Rate BLERBlock Error Rate BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying BWP BandWidth Part CAZACConstant Amplitude Zero Cross Correlation CB Code Block CBG Code BlockGroup CCA Clear Channel Assessment CDM Code Division Multiplex CM CubicMetric CORESET Control Resource Set CQI Channel Quality Information CRCCyclic Redundancy Check CRS Common reference signal CSI Channel StateInformation CSI-RS Channel state information reference signal DAIDownlink Assignment Indicator DCI Downlink Control Information DFTDiscrete Fourier Transform DFTS-FDM DFT-spread-FDM DM(−)RS Demodulationreference signal(ing) eMBB enhanced Mobile BroadBand FBE Frame BasedEquipment FDD Frequency Division Duplex FDE Frequency DomainEqualisation FDF Frequency Domain Filtering FDM Frequency DivisionMultiplex HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request IAB Integrated Access andBackhaul IFFT Inverse Fast Fourier Transform IR Impulse Response ISIInter Symbol Interference LBT Listen-Before-Talk MBB Mobile BroadbandMCS Modulation and Coding Scheme MIMO Multiple-input-multiple-output MRCMaximum-ratio combining MRT Maximum-ratio transmission MU-MIMO Multiusermultiple-input-multiple-output OFDM/A Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplex/Multiple Access PAPR Peak to Average Power Ratio PDCCHPhysical Downlink Control Channel PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared ChannelPRACH Physical Random Access CHannel PRB Physical Resource Block PUCCHPhysical Uplink Control Channel PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel(P)SCCH (Physical) Sidelink Control Channel PSS Primary SynchronisationSignal(ing) (P)SSCH (Physical) Sidelink Shared Channel QAM QuadratureAmplitude Modulation OCC Orthogonal Cover Code QPSK Quadrature PhaseShift Keying PSD Power Spectral Density RAN Radio Access Network RATRadio Access Technology RB Resource Block RNTI Radio Network TemporaryIdentifier RRC Radio Resource Control RX Receiver, Reception,Reception-related/side SA Scheduling Assignment SC-FDE Single CarrierFrequency Domain Equalisation SC-FDM/A Single Carrier Frequency DivisionMultiplex/Multiple Access SCI Sidelink Control Information SINRSignal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio SIR Signal-to-interference ratioSNR Signal-to-noise-ratio SR Scheduling Request SRS Sounding ReferenceSignal(ing) SSS Secondary Synchronisation Signal(ing) SVD Singular-valuedecomposition TB Transport Block TDD Time Division Duplex TDM TimeDivision Multiplex TX Transmitter, Transmission,Transmission-related/side UCI Uplink Control Information UE UserEquipment URLLC Ultra Low Latency High Reliability Communication VL-MIMOVery-large multiple-input-multiple-output ZF Zero Forcing ZP Zero-Power,e.g. muted CSI-RS symbol

Abbreviations may be considered to follow 3GPP usage if applicable.

1. A method of operating a wireless device in a wireless communicationnetwork, the wireless device being configured with: a first timingstructure based on a fixed frame period (FFP), the fixed frame perioddefining frame intervals, each frame interval comprising a channeloccupancy interval and a subsequent idle interval, the idle intervalextending to the end of the frame interval; a second timing structurebased on slots; and a configured grant allowing transmission ofcommunication signaling at configured transmission occasions within thesecond timing structure, each configured transmission occasion extendingover a number Nto of symbols in a slot having a start at a first symbolof the Nto symbols; the method comprising: performing a clear channelassessment (CCA) procedure in an idle interval of a first fixed frameperiod preceding a second fixed frame period, the start of a firstconfigured transmission occasion coinciding with the start of thechannel occupancy interval of the second fixed frame period; andtransmitting communication signaling based on the result of the CCAprocedure.
 2. A wireless device for a wireless communication network,the wireless device being configured to: be configured with a firsttiming structure based on a fixed frame period (FFP), the fixed frameperiod defining frame intervals, each frame interval comprising achannel occupancy interval and a subsequent idle interval, the idleinterval extending to the end of the frame interval; be configured witha second timing structure based on slots; be configured with aconfigured grant allowing transmission of communication signaling atconfigured transmission occasions within the second timing structure,each configured transmission occasion extending over a number Nto ofsymbols in a slot having a start at a first symbol of the Nto symbols;perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) procedure in an idle intervalof a first fixed frame period preceding a second fixed frame period, thestart of a first configured transmission occasion coinciding with thestart of the channel occupancy interval of the second fixed frameperiod; and transmit communication signaling based on the result of theCCA procedure.
 3. The method according to one of the preceding claim 1,wherein the first configured transmission occasion has a start at astart of a first slot.
 4. The method according to claim 1, whereintransmitting communication signaling based on the result of the CCAprocedure comprises transmitting the communication signaling when theCCA procedure indicates that the channel is unoccupied.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein transmitting communication signaling basedon the result of the CCA procedure comprises transmitting thecommunication signaling at a later configured transmission occasion thanthe first configured transmission occasion.
 6. The method according toclaim 1, wherein transmitting communication signaling is based on aFrame Based Equipment (FBE) operation mode.
 7. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the second timing structure defines, based on anumerology indication, at least one of: a slot duration; a number ofsymbols; and a symbol duration.
 8. The method according to claim 1,wherein the clear channel assessment procedure has a duration shorterthan a duration of the idle interval.
 9. The method according to claim1, wherein the idle interval of the first fixed frame period at leastone of abuts and neighbours the channel occupancy interval of the secondfixed frame period.
 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein Nto isone of 1, 2, or 4 or more.
 11. A computer storage medium storing anexecutable computer program comprising instructions that, when executed,causes processing circuitry to at least one control and perform a methodof operating a wireless device in a wireless communication network, thewireless device being configured with: a first timing structure based ona fixed frame period (FFP), the fixed frame period defining frameintervals, each frame interval comprising a channel occupancy intervaland a subsequent idle interval, the idle interval extending to the endof the frame interval; a second timing structure based on slots; and aconfigured grant allowing transmission of communication signaling atconfigured transmission occasions within the second timing structure,each configured transmission occasion extending over a number Nto ofsymbols in a slot having a start at a first symbol of the Nto symbols;the method comprising: performing a clear channel assessment (CCA)procedure in an idle interval of a first fixed frame period preceding asecond fixed frame period, the start of a first configured transmissionoccasion coinciding with the start of the channel occupancy interval ofthe second fixed frame period; and transmitting communication signalingbased on the result of the CCA procedure.
 12. (canceled)
 13. The methodaccording to claim 3, wherein transmitting communication signaling basedon the result of the CCA procedure comprises transmitting thecommunication signaling when the CCA procedure indicates that thechannel is unoccupied.
 14. The device according to claim 2, wherein thefirst configured transmission occasion has a start at a start of a firstslot.
 15. The device according to claim 2, wherein transmittingcommunication signaling based on the result of the CCA procedurecomprises transmitting the communication signaling when the CCAprocedure indicates that the channel is unoccupied.
 16. The deviceaccording to claim 2, wherein transmitting communication signaling basedon the result of the CCA procedure comprises transmitting thecommunication signaling at a later configured transmission occasion thanthe first configured transmission occasion.
 17. The device according toclaim 2, wherein transmitting communication signaling is based on aFrame Based Equipment (FBE) operation mode.
 18. The device according toclaim 2, wherein the second timing structure defines, based on anumerology indication, at least one of: a slot duration; a number ofsymbols; and a symbol duration.
 19. The device according to claim 2,wherein the clear channel assessment procedure has a duration shorterthan a duration of the idle interval.
 20. The device according to claim2, wherein the idle interval of the first fixed frame period at leastone of abuts and neighbours the channel occupancy interval of the secondfixed frame period.
 21. The device according to claim 2, wherein Nto isone of 1, 2, 3, or 4 or more.